MOBILE, Alabama – A part-time police officer accused of raping a Chunchula woman at the Mount Vernon jail two years ago had a checkered employment history that city leaders ignored, according to allegations in a federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit names as defendants the town, Mayor Jerry Lundy, the Town Council and other municipal leaders, as well as the officer, James Mott.

Authorities charged Mott with rape, but he pleaded guilty in July to a lesser offense. The Semmes resident since has been terminated. The Press-Register and al.com generally do not identify rape victims.

Mott could not be reached for comment and his attorney did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Lundy, who lost his re-election bid in August, said his lawyers have instructed him not to comment. Erin Fleming, an attorney for the town and its officials, also declined to comment on the suit.

“We think what it shows is a lack of leadership of the city to allow these sorts of things to go on. … There was no strong force to keep things in line,” said Greg Evans, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys.

Mott accused of incompetence

By the time Mott joined the Mount Vernon Police Department as a part-time officer in the north Mobile County town in April 2010, according to the suit, he already had been terminated or asked to resign from four previous law enforcement positions.

According to an April 2005 letter to the Mobile County Personnel Board from the town of Creola, for instance, the Town Council terminated Mott the previous month for three infractions, including improper interaction with prisoners.

That followed a six-month stint at the Satsuma Police Department that ended in January 2003 with his resignation after the police chief accused him of “conduct unbecoming an employee in public service,” according to Evans.

The lawsuit alleges that Mount Vernon officials should have known about Mott’s “incompetency to perform the duties” of a police officer.

“The information was there,” Evans said.

The Mount Vernon incident occurred on Sept. 29, 2010. The plaintiff was serving a jail sentence for unpaid traffic tickets and asked to use the telephone. The civil complaint alleges that Mott escorted her into a small room where the phone was, forced her to have sex with him and then took her back to the cell.

Mott, 41, admitted that he had sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual. He pleaded guilty to custodial sexual misconduct, and a judge sentenced him to three years’ probation.

Evans said his client disputes that account, adding that prosecutors never consulted her before offering Mott the plea bargain.

“It was not consensual –- it was forcible,” he said.

Still, Evans said, the criminal conviction could be important to the civil case.

“That means there is absolutely no way for any of the defendants to contest that the act occurred,” he said.

Complaint references previous suit

The complaint references a federal sexual harassment suit filed earlier this year by a police dispatcher who accused the mayor and others of making unwanted sexual comments.

“At the time Mott began serving as a police officer, overt sexual harassment was not only tolerated in the Town of Mount Vernon, it was also engaged in by among other individuals, the Defendant Mayor Jerry Lundy, in addition to other employees,” the suit states.

The complaint suggests that the alleged harassment explains why the town did not take seriously its constitutional duty to prevent the rape. It also alleges that the town failed to adequately train or supervise Mott.

Mott’s employment history shows that he bounced from department to department, never staying longer than a year. As far back as March 1993, Evans said, the defendant applied for a police officer job but failed to score high enough on the employment test.

Mott also failed to complete the Southwest Alabama Police Academy in 1995 because he flunked the physical fitness test, Evans said.

The attorney said Mott failed two more tries, in 1998 and 1999 and that Creola rejected his application in June 1999.

Satsuma hired Mott in December 2000 but let him go the following January when he could not complete a 1.5-mile run in the requisite time. The city rehired him in July 2002 but asked him to resign after the chief issued the “conduct unbecoming” sanction.

Chickasaw hired Mott in April 2003 and he began work in July of that year. By September, though, he had resigned for “personal reasons.” Evans said he asked the Alabama State Docks Police Department, where he had applied for a position, not to contact his previous employer in Chickasaw.

Mott got the job at Creola in May 2004, but lost it in March 2005 amid allegations involving his conduct in uniform.

Creola's letter to the Personnel Board states that Mott failed to follow the chief’s instructions
regarding the enforcement of inmate privileges, made “unprofessional and
demeaning comments” to fellow officers and left inmates unsupervised in
an unsecured location behind the police station.

Mott also failed to fill out daily forms for three consecutive days, according to the letter.

Creola sent a letter about 10 months later informing the Personnel Board that the Town Council had voted to accept Mott’s resignation in “good standing.” But Personnel Director Donald Dees responded in writing that he had no basis for changing the designation.

“I don’t have a clear understanding, from your letter, of your ability to accept the resignation of a person who is not an employee and who was terminated for cause approximately ten months ago,” he wrote.

Evans said he and co-counsel Joshua Briskman have not decided how much money in damages they will seek.